“Why is Branson a douche?” and other funny Google results

After reading that a court in Milan found Google guilty of libel after its autocomplete search engine function linked a man’s name to terms including “conman”, we decided to see what Google throws up when we type in entrepreneurs’ names.

Now, we obviously don’t mean to infer anything about anyone here (or endorse any views!) – these are just a reflection of Google’s autocomplete search results.

So what exactly is autocomplete anyway, you ask?

When you start typing a search query into Google, it automatically starts suggesting what it is that you’re searching for (“autocompleting” your search query).

This is where strange and funny things crop up. Now, onto the fun bit – the results! They were kinda funny, to say the least…

Let’s start with Duncan Bannatyne, star of Dragons’ Den. Is his hair all that it seems?

What about easyGroup’s CEO Stelios? What does Google have to say about him?

Regus CEO Mark Dixon is also painted with the same brush:

Sir Richard Branson doesn’t escape from Google autocomplete’s suggestions, either…

What about Lord Sugar, does he fair much better? Nope, amongst other things, he’s “an idiot”, apparently.

Google autocomplete is particularly harsh about Karen Brady, Lord Sugar’s sidekick. This is probably unfair.

Deborah Meaden, however, is on the more complimentary end of the scale. A cougar in the making?

Sarah Beeny, the property tv star and entrepreneur, seems to have another problem, however. Once you pop…

Finally, assumptions about fashion entrepreneur Caprice are most surprising. We’ve met Caprice a few times, and she is most certainly not a man. She is all woman.

Wow, quite a list!

We asked Google about its autocomplete results, and this is what a spokesperson had to say:

“Just like the web, the search queries presented may include silly or strange or surprising terms and phrases.

“While we always strive to neutrally and objectively reflect the diversity of content on the web (some good, some objectionable), we also apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence and hate speech.

“These searches are algorithmically determined based on a number of purely objective factors, including popularity of search terms, without human intervention. All of the predicted queries shown have been typed previously by Google users.”

Have you come across any funny Google autocomplete results? Let us know below!

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